This weekend’s report in the Nikkei Asian Review that Sony Music was on the verge of buying Believe Digital has sparked a response from the distributor’s CEO Denis Ladegaillerie.
In what was flagged as an exclusive interview with Billboard, he said that reports that “we have concluded a deal with Sony to sell Believe are absolutely not true”. Ladegaillerie also told MBW “that information is not true” referring to the Nikkei Asian Review story.
It’s worth noting that the original article did not claim that a deal had been concluded, but rather that Sony was “in the final stages of talks” for an acquisition.
Ladegaillerie’s ‘denial’ isn’t a cast-iron denial, then, although he maintained in both interviews that Believe is mainly interested in raising new funding rather than selling up.
“In parallel to that process we are having selected strategic discussions with players that have approached us about strategic investments or full acquisition along the way,” he told Billboard.
“Believe has not excluded discussions with potential strategic partners that understand changes in the artist and label market and share [our] values of service, fairness and transparency,” he told MBW.
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